The present invention relates to a new cable laying configuration, preferably electric cables, data and information transport cables and/or control cables, in particular fiber optic cables, fluid transport tubes or the like in galleries, tunnels, shafts, pipes, channels or the like, in particular water and/or waste-water guiding systems. The configuration contains at least one cable which is to be laid, which can be unwound from a drum from the region of an opening providing access to an installation shaft or access shaft or the like toward the respective pipe, channel or the like, or drawn or fixed in a stationary manner in the pipe, channel or the like.
Furthermore, it relates to a method for laying cables in pipes, channels or the like using the aforementioned configuration and auxiliary devices to support the new cable laying system.
The high growth rate in the field of information technology and telecommunications, but also the ever increasing power demand has made a large-scale construction of the transmission lines and cables of the most varied types and their interconnection required in the last few years.
Even in those fields with few obstacles, the lines or cables provided for the noted purposes are no longer laid to a large extent over trouble-prone overhead lines in the country, but, if possible, underground whereby, although the excavation and laying work required for this is relatively expensive, it is hampered relatively little by other underground installations.
Laying cables and lines of this type under the surface in congested city areas is much more difficult, whereby the aspect of traffic obstructions due to excavation work should be noted here as a substantial disadvantage, in addition to the abundance of existing underground installations. In the course of constructing line systems and data networks with high transmission densities and rates, fiber optic or glass fiber cables represent a substantial improvement and it has already been common for some time to avoid the excavation and construction work required for laying them and to use the existing underground infrastructure of the supply and disposal networks, in particular for water and waste water pipes or sewage systems, for laying cables of this type. It has become routine in many large cities to not only lay data transmission, control and information carrier cables in underground conduit systems but also e.g. power cables.
The great advantage of this type of cable laying is that it is no longer necessary to open the ground, associated with a destruction of traffic areas, pavements and significant traffic interference with all the unpleasant requirements and consequences, such as e.g. involvement of several authorities, restoration work and the like, as a result of which considerable time, work and cost savings are obtained and, at the same time, relatively high flexibility with respect to the laying section.
Of course, a substantial requirement continues to exist, namely that the laying technology in underground supply and disposal systems can take place with as low an expenditure as possible and that a quick laying is made possible in a short time under the inherently more difficult conditions existing in conduit systems without considerable problems.
A technology often used in the past for laying cables and cable lines existed essentially in that cable supports with fixtures for holding or clamping the cable are installed in each case on the walls or on the cover of a tunnel, a channel or the like at distances of about one to two meters and that they are provided with cover plates, hoods or the like.
Furthermore, since that time, a large number of proposals have become known for cable-support pipes or profiles having endless gutter or hollow profiles that can be unwound from winding drums at an installation site.